Valore v. State
| Decision Date | 19 January 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 52703,52703 |
| Citation | 545 S.W.2d 477 |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
| Parties | Elvira Lemon VALORE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
By per curiam opinion, this cause was abated to allow the trial judge to hear oral arguments in accordance with Art. 40.09(11), V.A.C.C.P. This proceeding was conducted and the appeal is now before us for consideration on the merits.
Appellant was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. Her punishment was assessed at ten years' confinement.
Appellant's first ground of error asserts that the evidence is insufficient to support the conviction because her voluntary confession was not corroborated by the State. Specifically, appellant argues that the corpus delicti was not established.
In Self v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 513 S.W.2d 832, we stated that the corpus delicti in a prosecution for murder consisted of two elements: the body or the remains of the body of the victim must be found and identified, 1 and it must be shown that the victim's death was caused by the criminal act of another.
Our decision in Self, supra, also states:
These rules must be applied to the evidence adduced at trial. On July 24, 1974, the deceased, Romie Singleton, was shot as she attempted to leave a vehicle parked on a Port Arthur street. The following day, the appellant went to the police station and made a written statement. The confession portion of this statement reads: 2
Lieutenant Jerry Fontenot, a Port Arthur police officer, testified for the State. He stated that he had heard the shots fired from the gun. Fontenot was on a narcotics stakeout on the night of the offense and was positioned approximately one hundred and fifty yards from the scene of the crime. The officer testified that he did not see the shooting, but that the shots were fired simultaneously. 3
After hearing the shots, the officer went to the scene of the offense. He recovered the gun from the appellant's husband and conducted a general investigation of the incident. Appellant had left the scene after her husband recovered the gun from her.
The State also introduced the revolver used by the appellant and photographs of the deceased.
The evidence offered by the State, coupled with appellant's confession, is sufficient to establish the corpus delicti of the crime. Self v. State, supra. The first ground of error is overruled.
Appellant next challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to show the required culpable mental state.
The indictment alleges that appellant:
'. . . did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause the death of Romie Singleton by shooting her with a handgun; AND . . ., did then and there, intending to cause serious bodily injury to an individual, Romie Singleton, commit an act clearly dangerous to human life, to wit: did then and there shoot the said Romie Singleton with a handgun thereby causing the death of said individual. . . .'
This charging instrument alleges the offense of murder as defined in V.T.C.A., Penal Code Sec. 19.02(a)(1) and (2). The jury found that the appellant committed the offense of voluntary manslaughter because she caused the death 'under the immediate influence of sudden passion arising from an adequate cause.' V.T.C.A., Penal Code Sec. 19.04(a). Appellant's conviction for voluntary manslaughter under Sec. 19.04(a), supra, can only be upheld if the evidence is sufficient to prove that she committed acts that otherwise would constitute murder under Sec. 19.02(a)(1) or (2), supra, as charged in the indictment.
Initially, we observe that the appellant, in her written statement, did not confess to the offense of murder as charged in the indictment. She confessed to firing at her husband, but she did not confess to intentionally shooting the deceased nor did she state she intended, by her actions, to cause serious bodily injury to to the deceased.
The statements of Fontenot only corroborate the confession to the extent that both his testimony and her written statement asssert that two shots were fired.
The evidence admitted to support the conviction consists of:
1. Appellant's confession, which does not admit the offense charged in the indictment.
2. Appellant's statement in her confession that she was at the scene of the crime and possessed a revolver.
3. Appellant's statement in her confession that the revolver in her possession discharged and the victim fell to the ground.
4. Officer Fontenot's testimony that he heard two shots fired simultaneously. (See footnote 3.)
5. The photographs of the victim, and the physical evidence of the revolver.
This evidence must be reviewed in the light most favorable to the verdict. Murray v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 505 S.W.2d 589.
Two established rules support the conviction. First, the jury is allowed to accept a portion of a witness's testimony and reject the remaining part. Hemphill v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 505 S.W.2d 560.
The jury in the case at bar was authorized to accept Fontenot's testimony that the shots were fired one after another. At the same time, the trier of fact in this case had the option of accepting part of the statements made by the appellant and rejecting the remainder. The jury, therefore, could have accepted appellant's confession that she was at the scene of the crime with a gun in her possession which discharged and felled the victim. And, the jury could have rejected appellant's statements raising the defense of accident 4 and negating her intention to kill the victim.
The second rule which militates against the...
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